WORK OUT MODALITIES TO CHECK CHILD TRAFFICKING (PAGE 13, AUGUST 30, 2010)

A MEMBER of the Council of State, Naa Seidu Braimah, has called on assembly members in the Upper West Region to work out modalities to address the problem of child trafficking which is rampant in the region.
Expressing concern over the trafficking of children from the Upper West Region to other parts of the country, he described the trend as “an annual canker in the region.”
Addressing the Second Ordinary Meeting of the Wa Municipal Assembly, Naa Braimah said most of the children who were trafficked at very tender ages, later became liabilities in the future.
He urged the planning unit of the assembly to work hard and ensure that people stopped building structures in unauthorised areas.
He said the assembly should endeavour to monitor what was happening in its localities so as to ensure an orderly development.
“Let us forget about “TIJAABUNYENI” “to wit, we are the same people” and insist on doing the right thing in our communities”, the Council of State member advised.
Naa Braimah called for unity and co-operation between the Assembly and the Municipal Chief Executive, and called on members of the Assembly to forget about their differences since no success would be chalked up without unity.
The Deputy Majority Leader in Parliament and Member of Parliament for Wa Central, Mr Rashid Pelpuo, briefed members on the STX deal, and said it would ensure job creation and solve the serious accommodation problem facing the security services.
He said the government had secured a loan of US$32 million to solve the Wa water problem by tapping raw water from the Black Volta at Dorimon in the Wa West district for treatment in Wa.
He said under the Northern Electricity Programme, a number of adjoining communities in the constituency had been energised while work was ongoing to connect others to the national grid by the end of the year.
Mr Pelpuo said the municipality was experiencing massive infrastructural development which included the construction of a regional library, hospital and roads, among others.
For his part the Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Duogu Yakubu, announced that with the exception of the Konjiehi School project which was behind schedule, projects being executed under the District Development Fund had been completed and handed over.
He said already the Assembly had initiated moves to terminate the project and repackage it for award to a serious and competent contractor.
Touching on revenue, he said the assembly exceeded its target by 11.46 per cent by the end of the first quarter while the second went up by 18.09 per cent, making it about 57 per cent of its annual target.
Mr Yakubu appealed to members of the assembly to help make the census a success by sensitising their communities to its importance to the development of the country.